Pneumatic ski boot



J. T. FINN Nov. 12, 1968 PNEUMAT IC SKI BOOT Filed May 26, 1967 United States Patent 3,410,004 PNEUMATIC SKI BOOT James T. Film, 154 Maple St., Springfield, Mass. 01101 Filed May 26, 1967, Ser. No. 641,587 1 Claim. (Cl. 362.5)

ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE This invention relates to footwear, and more particularly to footwear having no conventional characters such as laces and the like.

It is therefore the main purpose of this invention to provide a pneumatic ski boot that will have a plurality of individual air chambers that may be inflated according to the desired comfort the wearer may want.

Another object of this invention is to provide a pneumatic ski boot which may be filled with air or other suitable gas by individual chamber valves which are external to permit attaching the appropriate fitting.

Still another object of this invention is to provide a pneumatic ski boot in which the various chambers may be filled to impart the degree of comfort the wearer wishes and the nature of the structure imparts warmth to the foot due to the air or other gas being entrapped in the chambers forming insulation.

A still further object of this invention is to provide a pneumatic ski boot which requires no tedious lacing or unlacing.

Other objects of the present invention are to provide a pneumatic ski boot which is simple in design, inexpensive to manufacture, rugged in construction, easy to use and eflicient in operation.

These and other objects will be readily evident upon a study of the following specification and the accompanying drawing werein:

The drawing is a cross-sectional view of the present invention.

3,410,004 Patented Nov. 12, 1968 A pneumatic ski boot 10 is provided with a flexible outer wall 12 in which are secured a plurality of spaced apart air valves 13. Air valves 13 provides the means of filling chambers 14 which are defined by the flexible separation walls 15 and the inner lining 16. The opening 17 in the upper extremity of boot 10 allows for the introduction of the wearers foot prior to the inflation of the individual chambers 14.

In use, the user of boot 10 inserts his foot into the opening 17 and by various manual or automatic air filling means, inflates the chambers 14 through the use of valves 13 to any desired pressure, the inflating of chambers 14 causing the inner lining 16 to conform to the contoure of the wearers foot. It will be noted that the pressure in pounds per square inch introduced into chambers 14 may vary in any of the chambers depending upon the desire of the wearer.

It shall also be noted that the aforedescribed structure may be incorporated into various other types of footwear.

What I now claim is:

1. A pneumatically tightened ski boot, comprising in combination, a non-buckled, non-laced footwear body including a horizontal portion for enclosing a wearers foot, said horizontal portion including a toe portion and a heel portion, and said footwear body further including a sleeve configurated portion for placement around said wearers ankle, said body comprising an outer shell and an inner lining in spaced apart relation, a plurality of air chambers between said shell and said lining, a plurality of air valves secured through said shell, each said air valve communicating with one of said air chambers, a plurality of said air chambers being of circular configuration located parallel adjacent each other around said sleeve portion, a plurality of said air chambers being of generally U-shaped configuration and located parallel adjacent each other around said toe portion and another one generally U-shaped air chamber being located around said heel portion.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 746,338 12/1903 Keen 36-71 X 2,638,601 5/ 1953 Bullard. 2,774,152 12/1956 Alber 36-71 PATRICK D. LAWSON, Primary Examiner. 

